I gave my daughter the Naked Roommate book for Christmas. She hasn’t read it yet but I let her know that is her summer assignment 
I also have the one for the parents (I think Naked Roommate for parents?) but it seems a little outdated. They might have a newer version out now.
This is us too.
She’s not a big social media person, and never posts publicly and only followed and interacted with her theater group, but her honors sub-cohort only has 120 kids total incoming at a huge state flagship, and they are using social media to find each other. They have their own dorm and it seems to be a close-knot community. She found her roommate through a private DM group for her program. The program itself set up a FB page, and she had to start a FB account to participate. I made her promise not to like boomer memes.
I had almost convinced my S24 to make social media accounts, just to use kind of like a bulletin board and follow clubs/groups that he is interested in for college. But yesterday, his DE sociology class was all about how terrible social media is and how it is making people unhappy and society worse. 
And now he has re-firmed his intention to never use it.
My kids weren’t/aren’t too much into social media, and rarely post but do communicate with friends through IG messenger etc. It seems to be a good life skill to know how to use social media with intention. And in some groups/communities it’s used as the primary communication tool. Being a discerning consumer/user is key to not letting it negatively impact one’s mental health.
Made connection in DTW (again), so MSP here we come!
We’re talking about setting some time limits on our phones, like 10 minutes/day. That’s enough time to check on a schedule change or some school announcement.
Thanks, turns out she has had both A and B so we are set.
Pretty good article here about how this is throwing the schools for a loop:
Yep. I work in higher ed. My institution has weathered many enrollment storms (economic, natural disasters, pandemics) and we’ve been told by our VP of Enrollment that the FAFSA debacle has the potential to be the most devastating we’ve ever faced. 
Another HE staff (not in enrollment/FA) and I feel so badly for those in those departments, not just my own school, but everywhere! We have submitted a FA appeal at #1 school (and are on a waitlist for a tuition exchange /CIC waiver) and part of me just hopes/wishes they could do the waiver and be done with the paperwork, as a non-high earner, the difference between waiver and the general FA offer is not huge.
So many folks in so many groups are not quite realizing that the school’s hands are tied, it’s not a reflection of their service and I hope those are the exceptions and not the rules - that most people are being gracious and empathetic and polite in their conversations with staff.
Another anecdotal side effect of late FA and late commits, is that the local schools “class of 24 decisions” instagram pages are begging for submissions! The ones that have been shared were all ED 1/2 or committed athletes, and only I think 5 of a class of about 125 ish.
S is back from Amherst admitted student days. He seems to have had a great visit, met a lot of other prospective students and current students and liked most all of them, thought campus was lovely, took a selfie with the Robert Frost statue, had a great horn lesson and hung out with orchestra kids, has nothing in particular negative to say…and still seems dead set on continuing my kids’ trend of depositing on April 30. Sigh.
Amherst is a great place, so inspiring.
We toured Amherst before we realized my D24 was an urban campus girl. I wanted to go back in time and go to Amherst myself!! Loved it.
Our school has postponed the Senior Day for this year twice already-it’s usually 5/1 with all the kids wearing college gear and a big group pic. At this rate, they might have to do it right before graduation. Our HS is middle of the road but not many eligible for FA-something like 30-40% have committed even if they are not IG official.
More details later when I am less fried, but Carleton put on an excellent admitted students day, and S24 has a tough decision to make.
Interestingly, he spent much of the trip asking what I would consider to be somewhat basic questions about not just Carleton but also WUSTL. He eventually admitted in some sense it had not really been real to him until just now, when he actually has to make a decision. Very funny to me that apparently he has been just coasting through all this barely paying attention until now . . . .
So regarding FA I read something a little shocking. (A Facebook group I follow). Basically they said they had committed/deposited to four schools and would wait to see who had the best financial aid. From the comments it sounded like others had done the same.
Why they didn’t just run the schools calculators to see about what they would owe, I am not sure.
So I wonder how many schools in the end are going to be dealing with large withdrawals?
Not to mention that it’s a bit unethical to deposit at multiple schools.
No doubt schools have “breakage” assumed in their level of commitments.
Four seems crazy, but they’re likely used to decommits.
I imagine someone went to four because of the delay in aid but those same schools that can’t give you aid likely have extended commitment deadlines.
But maybe there’s a housing rationale to depositing.
My guess is this isn’t widespread and schools can likely predict to close levels the amount of breakage based on past years but who knows.
And that’s another reason to have wait lists.
My son is going to UMass Amherst (state school, pretty defined need-based aid policies and merit scholarship included in admission letter). It is jarring to see the number of people on the parents of admitted students FB group who have no idea what those policies are and are completely in the dark on what their costs will be until they get their final aid package from the school (which aren’t sent yet).
I have to admit that one reason I’m rooting for Amherst is because I want to visit him there! The way things are shaping up, I might well have kids in Nashville, Denver, and western Mass next year, so fun trips all around!